'The pitch is someone's workplace... you don't abuse someone in their workplace... why should football be any different?'

MILE HESKEY knows all too well what it's like to have to shrug off and overcome abuse.

- By RYAN PATON

The 47-year-old enjoyed an incredible career as a footballer, taking his local club Leicester City to two major trophies before he joined the team he supported, Liverpool FC, in 2000.

The striker was just 22 when he made the £11m move and played an essential part in the success achieved by Gerard Houllier's side, forging a formidable strike partnership with Michael Owen, as the Reds went on to win an historic treble in his first full season.

Heskey followed it up with an imperious campaign the next year as the team finished second in the Premier League and reasserted themselves in the Champions League after a generation away from Europe's elite competition.

The England international more than held his own during the halcyon days of Houllier's reign, with his DJ goal celebration a familiar sight during the Frenchman's Reds' renaissance.

But, despite the accolades and decisive moments at the top of the game, it's up there with one of football's most bizarre narratives that certain uneducated corners of the internet would lead you to believe that, somehow, Heskey wasn't actually a very good footballer.

Thankfully, the retired striker is secure enough with his own legacy to know the reality, as he told the ECHO in an exclusive interview he isn't fazed by such comments.

He said: "You can't listen to what other people are saying. You can only go by what you know. By what your teammates and the local fans are saying.

"Because they saw you week in, week out, and they know what you did. The funny thing with this is you can write history whatever way you want."

The testimonials from the former number eight's strike partners speak for themselves.

The greatest illustration of what he brought to a team was demonstrated by the way Owen's game went up to such a level that he won the Ballon d'Or a year after Heskey joined.